“Give Me a Man!””

 August 31, 2021

Goliath’s taunting challenge echoed through the valley of Elah: “Give me a man…!” (1 Samuel 17:10). God’s foes are still issuing this challenge, and like Saul and his army, God’s people are for the most part like them, quivering in fear, refusing to answer, failing to come out of hiding behind the safety of our hastily erected defenses. Like the ancient Israelites who went out each day shouting their war chants (v.20), despite all our talk, our bravado isn’t enough to get us into the fight for our culture.

It only takes one man whose ear is cocked to the voice of God instead of the culture to make a difference. Though he didn’t know it at the time, David had been preparing his entire short life for this moment. He had faced the lion and the bear, to him far more formidable opponents than this mere man. Preparation is key; the problem with many of us is, although we read our Bibles, pray, and worship with abandon, we aren’t preparing ourselves for the enemy who will issue the challenge. If the enemy of our souls is crying out, “Give me a man,” so is the LORD God, but like Saul and his army, we are trembling behind the protection of church pews and protocol instead of answering the call. With all our religion, we haven’t really prepared for battle. 

When called before king Saul, David told him of his preparation. Saul looked at his youthfulness and military inexperience; he and his army looked at the stature of their opponent; but David looked to God. Listen to his words to the Philistine:

“You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” —I Samuel 17:45-46 

David looked to the size of God instead of the size of the enemy, and when he did so, he also saw himself in a different light. He told king Saul who he was in verse 34: “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep…” Did you catch that? As he stood before his king, he wasn’t standing there as a mere shepherd. He saw himself as a warrior. He USED to keep his father’s sheep; but no more. Today he would become a giant-slayer! The giant had no idea what was in store for him when he shouted, “Give me a man!” He took one look at David and scoffed, “You’ve sent me a mere boy.” Like David’s brothers and like Saul himself, Goliath saw only the outside, but inside that boy was a man who knew who he was, and was eager to pick up with five smooth stones the gauntlet Goliath so foolishly threw to the ground.

“Give me a man!” 

“O God, raise up that boy-man today and let him run to the giant, sling whirling overhead, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.”